Sports

Hochman: Searching for sports' most obscure jerseys

Denver Broncos receiver Jerry Rice was perhaps the greatest football player ever, and nearly a decade after his emotional retirement at Broncos headquarters, his No.19 jerseys can be spotted around town.

Reading that description is sort of like accepting this one: "The Godfather" is the story of a man named Carlo. The film opens with Carlo's opulent wedding to the daughter of a mafia boss, but Carlo soon turns on the family and teams up with a rival family. In a terrifying scene, Carlo viciously beats his wife, who then calls her hothead brother Sonny — but it was Carlo who helped set up this whole plan, and Sonny is murdered on the causeway, on the way to help his sister and find Carlo. The film ends with Sonny's brother duping Carlo, having him killed.

In fact, Rice was on the Broncos for like 37 seconds, and while Rice's No. 80 jerseys are proudly worn in San Francisco, the obscure No.19 jerseys in Denver are more of a playful homage to a weird twist of history — a star briefly playing for a random team. I thought of Rice on Wednesday, when the Indiana Pacers released the injury stricken Andrew Bynum, who played only two games for the Pacers — two more than he played for the Philadelphia 76ers, who made the ill-fated trade for him, a trade that led them to dismal depths this past season.

So I posed this question on Twitter: "What would be the most-bizarre jersey to have? An Andrew Bynum Pacers? Andrew Bynum Sixers? Mike Piazza Marlins?"

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The response was overwhelming, and overwhelmingly awesome.

Locally, the Rice one might be the best, but a hat tip to The Post's Nick Groke, who suggested Bret Saberhagen, the two-time Cy Young winner who pitched in nine games for the 1995 Rockies.

Slugger Dale Murphy joined the expansion Rockies in 1993 with 398 career home runs, on the cusp of joining an elite swat fraternity. Alas, Murphy retired with 398 home runs. He hit .143 in 42 at-bats for the Rockies. He then retired from the game and is now the answer to a trivia question: Steroid-era players notwithstanding, Murphy is the only two-time National League MVP not in the Hall of Fame (the lone American League player? Roger Maris).

Johnny Unitas ended his career in a San Diego Chargers uniform. (The Associated Press)

Broncos general manager John Elway, who also played for the team for a little while, started his pro sports career as a minor-league baseball player in the New York Yankees organization. As such, a super-obscure jersey would be Elway's from the 1982 Class-A Short Season Oneonta Yankees ("Johnny Baseball" hit .318).

Seven-time NHL all-star Paul Kariya played 51 games for the Avalanche in 2003-04, but perhaps the most-obscure NHL jersey was pointed out by Denverite Seth Pringle. Gordie Howe began his NHL career in 1946 (1946!), and his final season was his lone season with the Hartford Whalers, 1979-1980 (1980!). Howe wore his standard No. 9 but had the strange full name GORDIE HOWE on the back (Also, can someone explain to me why in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," famously set in Chicago, Cameron Frye wore a Detroit Red Wings Howe jersey? Perhaps it was symbolic, that the forever-depressed Cameron wouldn't accept Chicago and all its possibilities in the way Ferris did — Ferris surely owned a Stan Mikita jersey).

These jerseys would also be tight (do people still say tight? I bet they stopped in like 2004, yet I've been saying it and raising the roof for a decade since) — NBA MVP Kevin Durant actually played his rookie season in the final season of the Seattle SuperSonics, and Allen Iverson played three games in an embarrassing tenure for the Memphis Grizzlies. Michael Jordan came back wearing No. 45 for the Bulls in 1994-95 season, but after a dismal playoff Game 1, Orlando's Nick Anderson said, "No. 45 is not No. 23." So in Game 2, Jordan surprised everyone by wearing No. 23 again, scoring 38 points in a win. Really, a cool jersey would be Jordan 45 for the Birmingham Barons minor-league baseball team. Even more obscure: Jordan 45 for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League.

The suggestion I received most on Twitter was Rasheed Wallace on the Atlanta Hawks — 'Sheed was traded and played just one game for Atlanta in 2004, scoring 20 points. He was traded again to the Pistons, and he famously helped Denver native Chauncey Billups lead the Pistons to an NBA championship that June.

Even more bizarre would be a Rollie Fingers Red Sox jersey, due to the fact that he never actually played for the Red Sox. As free agency loomed in 1976, Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley sold Fingers and Joe Rudi to Boston for an unprecedented $1 million each. The two suited up for the Sox in a game, sure enough, at Oakland, but MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn rescinded the deal, citing the integrity of the game.

But perhaps the coolest jersey from that era would be that of Oakland's Herb Washington, the track star Finley had hired to play the unique position of pinch runner. Washington played in 105 games and never batted or played the field, swiping 31 bases on 48 attempts. He was famously featured on a 1975 Topps card with the position "Pinch Run."

Numerous sports legends, holding on, played final seasons with weird teams, such as O.J. Simpson (49ers), Joe Namath (Rams), Hakeem Olajuwon (Raptors) and Patrick Ewing (Sonics and Magic). Possibly the weirdest of them all was Johnny Unitas, the regal quarterback from the Baltimore Colts who ended his career in the garish uniform of the 1973 San Diego Chargers.

But perhaps the most obscurely obscure jersey of them all might be a Broncos one — Maurice Clarett, who proved as incompetent as Fredo.

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